Affiliate

Behind the Scenes: Tips from Affiliate Managers (1)

2011-02-26T23:45:00.000-08:00

How to make sure your affiliate partnership request is approved by the vendors

Before an interview for a job, university acceptance, membership to a super private club or whatever else you may want to obtain, it’s always ideal if you can talk to an insider, to properly prepare yourself for success :). In a similar manner, this article aims to offer you inside information about top vendors that are open to partnership requests from Avangate affiliates.
We asked some of the top vendors in the Avangate Affiliate Network about their expectations from new affiliates: how can they be convinced to accept you, what turns them off and what is their number one advice to you as affiliate to sell more of their products.
We got some great answers from:

Claire Waledisch, Commercial Manager at VSO-Software,
Frank Chang, Marketing Manager at DVDFab,
Keros Tudos, Relationship Manager at IObit and
Alex Lamba, CEO at RSJoomla!

So, here are their tips on how to make sure you will be accepted as an affiliate (can be applied to most software vendors):
1. What are 3 qualities you look for when analyzing a partnership request from an affiliate?

VSO: The main thing we look at is the website associated with it. Does it look clean, does it have any traffic and would the targeted traffic be interested in our products? This means nothing however, as we have good affiliates in the past that either do not have a real website or haven’t yet finished it at the time they requested to be an affiliate.
DVDFab: Affiliate website; Affiliate IDs (normally – the smaller, the better); Potential.
IObit: We will firstly analyze his website based on three aspects: the category, the traffic rankings and the source of the traffic. This will allow us to provide the best suitable plan accordingly and calculate the affiliate’s earnings prospect.
RSJoomla: The website has to be related to IT/software. Creating your own text about our products rather than copying it from our website really improves the chances to be found by greater audience. Product reviews and blog posts usually are the best ways to do so. Targeted communities or local communities that use our products usually get the most of the affiliate partnership.

2. What are the most common reasons for rejecting an affiliate partnership request?

VSO: We do not reject affiliate partnership requests, we have not yet needed to. However, if an affiliate does not go by the rules we have outlined, we will lower their commission.
DVDFab: Spam promotion or violating our affiliate policy.
IObit: Websites containing inappropriate content, malicious websites and illegal websites will be rejected. Affiliates without clear profiles will also lead to a rejection.
RSJoomla: Websites that share false discount coupons or warez get rejected.

3. Do you have any special policies regarding pay-per-click advertising done by affiliates?

VSO: We request affiliates not to use our brand name when doing pay-per-click advertising, i.e. VSO or VSO-Software. Eventually this will also be applied to product brand names. Affiliates should have the role of making the product known, offering it as a solution when user is looking for a tool to use to do a certain task. If a user is looking for “Product Name XYZ” because they already know of it, then the affiliate here does not really have a role in terms or advertising unless of course that vendor site is not appearing in an organic search. If the affiliate is providing added value then this argument could be contested. Added value content would be landing pages in specific languages that do not exist on vendors site, guides, coupons, etc.
DVDFab: Currently, we don’t allow our affiliates to use PPC program on search engines to promote DVDFab products
IObit: Our affiliates can promote our products through PPC, but it is not allowed to use our trademarks or any IObit product names as PPC keywords, for this is against our policy and the law.
RSJoomla: We don’t have any special policy on the pay-per-click thing. Affiliates can use any politically correct marketing strategies to get more sales.

So, to put this in a nutshell, when requesting partnerships with software vendors, make sure your website has relevant content and it doesn’t violate the vendor’s affiliate policies, especially if you’re running pay-per-click advertising campaigns. If you don’t use a website for your affiliate marketing business, let the vendor know this.
Also, always communicate with the vendor – let him know how you’re promoting their products and ask if you have certain requirements.
We have more to share: stay tuned for the next part of this Behind the Scenes series!

What Does it Take to Sell through Affiliates? Part One – Affiliates Info Page

2011-02-26T23:43:00.000-08:00

Lots of software vendors ask themselves this question and, unfortunately, I’ve seen cases when the conclusion they reach is that “affiliate marketing doesn’t work” or as Joel Spolsky says, in his case, it’s “ a big waste of time“.
Both for these vendors and for the ones that think their affiliate sales channel could be improved and seeing the positive feedback I got from our software publishers regarding the issue of vendor involvement to motivate affiliates, I’m starting a series of posts with a more hands-on approach. I hope you will find them useful.

Affiliates Info Page

The first thing I’m going to talk about is what you can do in order to help potential affiliates find you and join your affiliate program, thus maximizing the chances to sell more using this channel.
The easiest way to advertise your affiliate plan is to have an affiliate information page on your website, which should explain clearly and concisely what your affiliate program is all about.
Think at it this way: affiliates reach your website when they’re searching for your products or for products from the same category. They are more likely to become affiliates of a vendor who knows to present them this opportunity at the right time, since they don’t have very much time to search how to become one’s affiliate partner. So why not take this chance and enroll them into your affiliate program?
It’s recommended you include on this page details like:

the commission(s) – base commission, commissioning schemes, etc. “What’s in it for me?” is the first question that pops into an affiliate marketer’s mind when deciding whether to join or not an affiliate program. Usually, base commissions for software start from 20% but, naturally, they are concordant to the price range of the products.
tracking details – cookie duration time and, generally, the period of time in which the affiliate will be credited for a previously referred customer. These usually start from 30 days upwards and in the software field, the bigger the cookie duration, the better for the affiliates. Geno Prussakov offers some interesting statistics about the customer return rates over a period of time.
payment frequency – how often will you pay your affiliates? How can they receive their money? (wire transfer, prepaid debit card, PayPal, etc.) The more payment options you have, affiliates are more likely to join your program.
the affiliate network(s) you are using for your program – some affiliates may be confused when they click the sign up button and find themselves on another website. To avoid this, it’s best you specify your affiliate network provider (such as Avangate).
the sign-up link (and page) – this is the thing that matters the most and you must not forget about it. If you’re using an affiliate network, it’s best if you can customize the sign up page to resemble your website from the same reasons as stated above.

Also, affiliates will appreciate it if you include other useful info on the dedicated page, such as:

contact information – it’s best you use a special email address for affiliate matters, like “affiliates@company.com” or the email address of the affiliate manager in your company .
other advantages they will get by joining – e.g. marketing materials (banners, text descriptions), live support from you / the affiliate network, etc.
links to PAD files – these are extremely helpful for download portals – will be discussed in the second part of this blog series.

I think it’s not necessary to talk about the advantages you get by implementing an affiliate info page from the search engines’ point of view… Just to be sure – potential affiliates will find you easier :)

How Do Other Software Companies Do It?

But enough with the theory- let’s see and analyze some examples:
1. Iobit has a basic affiliate section included on a more general partners page. The most important elements are present – the commission level and the sign up link.

2. In the case of VSO Software, the affiliate information page is very comprehensive, including all things that may concern affiliates. They work with multiple affiliate networks and they included specific details for each one. Also, marketing materials, PAD files and contact information is included on that page.

3. AVS4YOU has a step-by-step like affiliate information page, in which they make it easy for affiliates to become their affiliates. They also work with multiple affiliate networks and have specific buy links for affiliates.

4. Here’s an interesting approach – nice aired design with benefits outlined and social media contacts on Lavasoft’s affiliate information page.

If you aren’t convinced yet that affiliate marketing does work if you get involved into it, I have 2 more posts to convince you. ;) Stay tuned!

What Does it Take to Sell through Affiliates? Part One – Affiliates Info Page

2011-02-26T23:42:00.001-08:00

Affiliates Info Page

the commission(s) – base commission, commissioning schemes, etc. “What’s in it for me?” is the first question that pops into an affiliate marketer’s mind when deciding whether to join or not an affiliate program. Usually, base commissions for software start from 20% but, naturally, they are concordant to the price range of the products.
tracking details – cookie duration time and, generally, the period of time in which the affiliate will be credited for a previously referred customer. These usually start from 30 days upwards and in the software field, the bigger the cookie duration, the better for the affiliates. Geno Prussakov offers some interesting statistics about the customer return rates over a period of time.
payment frequency – how often will you pay your affiliates? How can they receive their money? (wire transfer, prepaid debit card, PayPal, etc.) The more payment options you have, affiliates are more likely to join your program.
the affiliate network(s) you are using for your program – some affiliates may be confused when they click the sign up button and find themselves on another website. To avoid this, it’s best you specify your affiliate network provider (such as Avangate).
the sign-up link (and page) – this is the thing that matters the most and you must not forget about it. If you’re using an affiliate network, it’s best if you can customize the sign up page to resemble your website from the same reasons as stated above.

Also, affiliates will appreciate it if you include other useful info on the dedicated page, such as:

contact information – it’s best you use a special email address for affiliate matters, like “affiliates@company.com” or the email address of the affiliate manager in your company .
other advantages they will get by joining – e.g. marketing materials (banners, text descriptions), live support from you / the affiliate network, etc.
links to PAD files – these are extremely helpful for download portals – will be discussed in the second part of this blog series.

How Do Other Software Companies Do It?

4. Here’s an interesting approach – nice aired design with benefits outlined and social media contacts on Lavasoft’s affiliate information page.

If you aren’t convinced yet that affiliate marketing does work if you get involved into it, I have 2 more posts to convince you. ;) Stay tuned!

7 Tips for a Successful Affiliate Sales Channel

2011-02-26T23:42:00.000-08:00

I finally got some time to study in detail the new AffStat Report 2009. It offers a comprehensive overview of the affiliate business and, from my point of view, it’s something every affiliate manager should read.
Starting from the affiliate responses, I put together a list of tips for the vendors that want to use the affiliate sales channel at its upper capacity. Having also put my experience so far in this list, it’s especially aimed at software affiliate managers; however, the principles can be used for other verticals too.
Here are the most important things one must take into account when dealing with affiliates selling software:

Get involved with your affiliates and help them with everything that is up to you: marketing materials, discounts etc. Show them how it’s best to sell your product – you may be in the best position for this regarding some of your affiliates. About one quarter of them has been in this business for less than 2 years.
Use an affiliate network for your affiliate sales channel. The advantages of a network are obvious: larger affiliate pool, bigger exposure and less technical and financial hassles. This goes for affiliates too, since over half of them prefer affiliate networks over independent affiliate programs.
Pay your affiliates commission at regular dates and avoid “fine print” payment policies. One thing is for sure: the shorter the payment intervals, the better. Most of the affiliates become sensible (“annoyed”, “stressed”) with complex payment policies that introduce lots of limitations and possible penalties for them; some will just quit on you.
Constantly incentivize your affiliates and give them reasons to perform better. You can do this right from the affiliate recruiting phase, but it’s most important you incentivize your current affiliates. Try to give your best performing affiliates the things they ask for, even if it’s a commission increase. Also take into account rewarding options such as the possibility to generate their own discounts or to be credited for software renewals.
Communicate with your affiliates, but don’t over do it! Share your latest developments and promotions with your affiliates and give them what ever information they might like. Most of affiliates prefer the email as their way of communication with affiliate managers. In the software business, it’s best you send newsletters / direct messages to your affiliates 2 times per month at most. You could also consider posting this info on a blog or on Twitter.
Watch the pay-per-click (PPC) affiliate campaigns; if you also do that, they may be doing it better. You must establish a policy regarding this, since an important percentage of the affiliates use PPC to promote their links.
Don’t expect an affiliate to promote just your products. Affiliates usually work with multiple affiliate programs and it’s highly probable they also promote your competition’s products on their website. Instead of cutting them out of your program, you can try and give them reasons to outline your products. This doesn’t just mean giving them a higher commission – affiliates are also sensible to the brand awareness of your products and the way you, as the affiliate manager, interact with them.

There are also some other interesting findings in this report, but I will comment on these in a future post. One more thing – the report contains a comprehensive section of Affiliate Marketing Resources, including a glossary, list of message boards, blogs and industry VIPs to follow on Twitter.

7 Tips for a Successful Affiliate Sales Channel

2011-02-26T23:41:00.000-08:00

Get involved with your affiliates and help them with everything that is up to you: marketing materials, discounts etc. Show them how it’s best to sell your product – you may be in the best position for this regarding some of your affiliates. About one quarter of them has been in this business for less than 2 years.
Use an affiliate network for your affiliate sales channel. The advantages of a network are obvious: larger affiliate pool, bigger exposure and less technical and financial hassles. This goes for affiliates too, since over half of them prefer affiliate networks over independent affiliate programs.
Pay your affiliates commission at regular dates and avoid “fine print” payment policies. One thing is for sure: the shorter the payment intervals, the better. Most of the affiliates become sensible (“annoyed”, “stressed”) with complex payment policies that introduce lots of limitations and possible penalties for them; some will just quit on you.
Constantly incentivize your affiliates and give them reasons to perform better. You can do this right from the affiliate recruiting phase, but it’s most important you incentivize your current affiliates. Try to give your best performing affiliates the things they ask for, even if it’s a commission increase. Also take into account rewarding options such as the possibility to generate their own discounts or to be credited for software renewals.
Communicate with your affiliates, but don’t over do it! Share your latest developments and promotions with your affiliates and give them what ever information they might like. Most of affiliates prefer the email as their way of communication with affiliate managers. In the software business, it’s best you send newsletters / direct messages to your affiliates 2 times per month at most. You could also consider posting this info on a blog or on Twitter.
Watch the pay-per-click (PPC) affiliate campaigns; if you also do that, they may be doing it better. You must establish a policy regarding this, since an important percentage of the affiliates use PPC to promote their links.
Don’t expect an affiliate to promote just your products. Affiliates usually work with multiple affiliate programs and it’s highly probable they also promote your competition’s products on their website. Instead of cutting them out of your program, you can try and give them reasons to outline your products. This doesn’t just mean giving them a higher commission – affiliates are also sensible to the brand awareness of your products and the way you, as the affiliate manager, interact with them.

5 Must Have Actions for Affiliates in 2011

2011-02-05T05:56:00.001-08:00

Affiliate Marketing is not “as easy as 1,2,3″. But I guess you know that by now. It needs constant efforts and taking advantage of all the opportunities in order to succeed in a significant manner.
You may have already done some of the things we will talk about here or not; the important thing is to try to use these resources for your benefit in 2011. They can bring you a lot of business:

Customize your shopping template – build up trust for your visitors by personalizing your shopping cart in order to have the look’n'feel of your website. This will reduce the shopping cart abandons and will increase your visitor-to-customer conversion rate.
As an Avangate affiliate, you can easily customize your template from the special section in the admin interface.
Use automatic tools to populate your site – this is especially important if you have large volumes of information on your website (you have a download portal, a coupon website etc.). Most of the affiliate networks provide data feeds with all product details you need in various formats that you can easily import on your website. This way, you can be sure the information is constantly updated with the latest changes.
Here at Avangate you can also create custom XML data feeds according to your requirements by using filters to narrow the results (e.g. create a data feed with the discount coupons offered by our software vendors).
Create and use discount coupons – convince your customers to buy from you by throwing in an incentive in form of a discount coupon. But don’t think that if you’ve done this, all the customers will flock to your website – you also have to bring some unique value along with that coupon (e.g. a product comparison sheet, a review etc.)
You can generate discount coupons yourself or you can use the ones supplied by the vendors if you’re a member of the Avangate Affiliate Network.
Promote your business via social media – Facebook and Twitter are a must. Promote your deals via social media channels and see the feedback you get from the market. Reach out to millions with a simple tweet / post and create a community around your website. Tell your audience about special deals you have on your website (exclusive bundles, promotions) or about new published reviews.
Take part in affiliate events – this is the best chance you get for creating new business opportunities with vendors across the globe. Nothing compares to a face-to-face meeting where you can discuss about new partnerships and arrange future deals. Affiliate Summit and A4U Expo are two major events in the affiliate industry that are worth going to.

As a bonus, if you’re an Avangate affiliate, just take a consultation with our Affiliate Doctor – he can offer a few pointers to you for optimizing your affiliate business. Use the live chat feature from the Avangate Control Panel for Affiliates.
So, to wrap this up, first of all be sure your website is attractive to visitors and generates sales; after that, you can go ahead and find new opportunities for it. And don’t forget to constantly test and improve your business.

7 Tips for a Successful Affiliate Sales Channel

2011-02-05T05:55:00.005-08:00

Get involved with your affiliates and help them with everything that is up to you: marketing materials, discounts etc. Show them how it’s best to sell your product – you may be in the best position for this regarding some of your affiliates. About one quarter of them has been in this business for less than 2 years.
Use an affiliate network for your affiliate sales channel. The advantages of a network are obvious: larger affiliate pool, bigger exposure and less technical and financial hassles. This goes for affiliates too, since over half of them prefer affiliate networks over independent affiliate programs.
Pay your affiliates commission at regular dates and avoid “fine print” payment policies. One thing is for sure: the shorter the payment intervals, the better. Most of the affiliates become sensible (“annoyed”, “stressed”) with complex payment policies that introduce lots of limitations and possible penalties for them; some will just quit on you.
Constantly incentivize your affiliates and give them reasons to perform better. You can do this right from the affiliate recruiting phase, but it’s most important you incentivize your current affiliates. Try to give your best performing affiliates the things they ask for, even if it’s a commission increase. Also take into account rewarding options such as the possibility to generate their own discounts or to be credited for software renewals.
Communicate with your affiliates, but don’t over do it! Share your latest developments and promotions with your affiliates and give them what ever information they might like. Most of affiliates prefer the email as their way of communication with affiliate managers. In the software business, it’s best you send newsletters / direct messages to your affiliates 2 times per month at most. You could also consider posting this info on a blog or on Twitter.
Watch the pay-per-click (PPC) affiliate campaigns; if you also do that, they may be doing it better. You must establish a policy regarding this, since an important percentage of the affiliates use PPC to promote their links.
Don’t expect an affiliate to promote just your products. Affiliates usually work with multiple affiliate programs and it’s highly probable they also promote your competition’s products on their website. Instead of cutting them out of your program, you can try and give them reasons to outline your products. This doesn’t just mean giving them a higher commission – affiliates are also sensible to the brand awareness of your products and the way you, as the affiliate manager, interact with them.

What Does it Take to Sell through Affiliates? Part One – Affiliates Info Page

2011-02-05T05:54:00.001-08:00

Affiliates Info Page

the commission(s) – base commission, commissioning schemes, etc. “What’s in it for me?” is the first question that pops into an affiliate marketer’s mind when deciding whether to join or not an affiliate program. Usually, base commissions for software start from 20% but, naturally, they are concordant to the price range of the products.
tracking details – cookie duration time and, generally, the period of time in which the affiliate will be credited for a previously referred customer. These usually start from 30 days upwards and in the software field, the bigger the cookie duration, the better for the affiliates. Geno Prussakov offers some interesting statistics about the customer return rates over a period of time.
payment frequency – how often will you pay your affiliates? How can they receive their money? (wire transfer, prepaid debit card, PayPal, etc.) The more payment options you have, affiliates are more likely to join your program.
the affiliate network(s) you are using for your program – some affiliates may be confused when they click the sign up button and find themselves on another website. To avoid this, it’s best you specify your affiliate network provider (such as Avangate).
the sign-up link (and page) – this is the thing that matters the most and you must not forget about it. If you’re using an affiliate network, it’s best if you can customize the sign up page to resemble your website from the same reasons as stated above.

Also, affiliates will appreciate it if you include other useful info on the dedicated page, such as:

contact information – it’s best you use a special email address for affiliate matters, like “affiliates@company.com” or the email address of the affiliate manager in your company .
other advantages they will get by joining – e.g. marketing materials (banners, text descriptions), live support from you / the affiliate network, etc.
links to PAD files – these are extremely helpful for download portals – will be discussed in the second part of this blog series.

How Do Other Software Companies Do It?

4. Here’s an interesting approach – nice aired design with benefits outlined and social media contacts on Lavasoft’s affiliate information page.

If you aren’t convinced yet that affiliate marketing does work if you get involved into it, I have 2 more posts to convince you. ;) Stay tuned!

What Does it Take to Sell Through Affiliates?

2011-02-05T05:53:00.000-08:00

Part Two – PAD Files

This is the second part of a series of blog posts about making the affiliate sales channel bring revenue to software vendors. In the first post I focused on the importance of the affiliates information page and how it helps you recruit affiliates. In this post, I will talk about another important component of the affiliate sales channel optimization process: PAD Files.
PAD Files – what are they good for?
Short for Portable Application Description, PAD files are special XML format files that contain information about a software product, from software vendor contact data to product description and price.
The main plus point of PAD files as a standard in the software industry is they offer a more simple way for webmasters to automate product listings, without having to manually edit every minor change the software vendor makes to the product price or description. This works best especially when dealing with download portals which aggregate lots of software titles.
Here’s a big list with the software download portals that accept software submission by PAD files – you can see there are big names involved there, like Download.com, Softpedia, Softonic, Brothersoft or Tucows. So, here are the benefits PAD files have to offer from the software vendor – affiliates relationship point of view:

they offer a more convenient way for affiliates to list a vendor’s products by including all the product details in a single standard file and by offering the possibility to automate product listings. This way, affiliates can focus on promoting your products rather than checking if anything has changed in the description or price of the product.
they are an important source of content for affiliate websites, having product descriptions, product images, multi language details and other elements that are important for a successful pre-sales campaign.
if any trial versions are available, they can boost a software product’s download count, thus increasing the exposure of that product.
since trial downloads are tracked in many affiliate networks, affiliates will be credited with the sales they refer through trial downloads from their websites.

How does it work?
It’s very simple:

the software author creates / edits the PAD file with product information: description, contact information, license type, supported platforms, price etc.
the webmaster of the affiliate website (download portal or any kind of website) uses the URL of the PAD file (whether published on the vendor’s website or submitted) and parses the XML format file to get the information he wants to display.
every time the software vendor edits something in the PAD file, the information will usually be automatically updated on all the affiliates’ websites using the URL of the PAD file as a source for displaying the product information.

How to create / edit a PAD file?
This is the more hands-on part of this post. We’ve seen what the advantages of using PAD files are – now let’s get busy. In order to be able to create a PAD file, you have to download a PAD file editor – they’re available free on the Internet. I recommend the latest version of the PADGen tool, available on the ASP Shareware website. After you install it on your computer, just follow the next steps:

Run the PADGen application; you will get the “Company Info” section. Fill in the Company Information fields – see example below.
Fill in the Program Information and Descriptions. Enter the program name, version, release date, type, category and other options on the “Program Info” screen. Then, in the “Descriptions” section, you can enter multiple descriptions (sorted by length) in multiple languages (English is default).
Set the Web Information and enter the text of the Distribution / End User Agreements. In the “Web Info” screen, enter the URLs for the product information page, order page etc. In the “Permissions” tab, enter the text of the Distribution and End User License Agreements.
Enter the Affiliates information – this is one of the most important part of the PAD file for your affiliates, because they can easily sign up in your affiliate program. It also contains a link to your affiliates information page. You can usually get the information required here in your Control Panel. If not, you should contact your account manager. Be sure the “Include this Extension into PAD File” option is checked! If you use another PAD editor, the Affiliates extension might not be available – you need do download that extension.
Verify, generate and sign PAD File according to the options set in the “Build Options” tab of PADGen. Should any errors occur, you will be notified by the application. If you use another PAD editor, be sure it has a validation tool included; if not, you can use the PAD Validator tool on the Avangate website.

Quick Tip to Increase your Affiliate Sales: Look at your Shopping Cart

2011-02-05T05:50:00.000-08:00

Nowadays everyone is talking about increasing your conversion rate as the main driver for generating more revenue online. Well, it is, actually :) and it’s up to all entities in the buying process – vendor, resellers, affiliates – to optimize this in order to generate more sales.
As an Avangate affiliate, you have advanced tools to improve this very important KPI. One of the unique possibilities we offer in the Avangate Affiliate Network is the affiliate order interface customization.
Did you ever wonder how the users act during the buying process? What happens after your visitors are redirected to the shopping cart / Avangate secure servers?

Why customize your shopping cart?

If you’re using buy links directly to the shopping cart on your affiliate website, you should consider customizing your order interface template, at least for the following reasons:

Increased trust – when shoppers are redirected to our payment interface, the vendor default template will be used. Some of the visitors may consider this untruthful and, thus, abandon the shopping process.
Control the shopping process – you know best (or at least you should have an idea of) what your audience’s needs and website flow are. So, you can serve them the right things in the shopping cart and avoid issues like an inappropriate shopping cart template defined by the software vendor or any other changes in various stages of the shopping cart that might affect your conversion rate.
Market the products better – many say that the software vendor is in the best position to market its products. However, there are many examples that prove the opposite – affiliates having more success in selling products than the vendors, given the fact that, for example, they may address specific niches, local audiences and so on.
Optimize the shopping cart – give your customers contextual links to your website, recommend them other things or just focus on the buying process – whatever your optimization strategy is, you can put it into practice.

Don’t forget – a very important part of the customization part is continuous testing – you shouldn’t look at this as a one-time operation after which you’re done, waiting for your conversion numbers to skyrocket.

How others do it

Along with some vendor shopping cart examples, here are a couple of customized affiliate order interfaces from our network that have very good conversion rates:
www.pcantivirusreviews.com

Here’s what they have to say about this:

[...] Of particular note is the optimization that we can now do that we weren’t able to with other companies. On their system, we’ve been able to increase revenue at our antivirus review site by over 20% and conversions over 30%, which are good numbers by anyone’s measure. [...] - K. Smith, Co-Editor

www.software.com

www.downloadatoz.com

As you can see, all of them have something in common – they preserve the layout of the original website, with contextual information added for the convenience of the buyer.
So, my advice is to go ahead and start customizing your affiliate shopping cart. The worst thing that can happen is to increase your commissions! :)

See you at Affiliate Summit East!

2011-02-05T05:32:00.000-08:00

We’re preparing for a trip to the US during August 15-17 – to New York City, to be more specific. I’m pretty excited to attend Affiliate Summit East 2010, a major event of the affiliate industry, together with my colleagues Adriana and Casey. So this is your chance to meet me in person:) and of course my other colleagues.
So why go to Affiliate Summit other than to meet our partners there and find new opportunities? To tell you the truth, we have some solid reasons to be there – here are the most important ones:

since the beginning of 2009, our affiliate network has grown rapidly, now having over 17,000 active affiliates that promote software products online;
merchants have become more and more interested in a dedicated software affiliate network that gets them targeted sales all over the world;
the latest survey sent to our affiliates allowed us to see what we’re doing OK, what affiliates need from us and how we should further develop the network.

So, long story short – we’ll be in New York during August 15-17 and we’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Behind the Scenes: Tips from Affiliate Managers (1)

2011-02-05T05:30:00.004-08:00

How to make sure your affiliate partnership request is approved by the vendors

Claire Waledisch, Commercial Manager at VSO-Software,
Frank Chang, Marketing Manager at DVDFab,
Keros Tudos, Relationship Manager at IObit and
Alex Lamba, CEO at RSJoomla!

VSO: The main thing we look at is the website associated with it. Does it look clean, does it have any traffic and would the targeted traffic be interested in our products? This means nothing however, as we have good affiliates in the past that either do not have a real website or haven’t yet finished it at the time they requested to be an affiliate.
DVDFab: Affiliate website; Affiliate IDs (normally – the smaller, the better); Potential.
IObit: We will firstly analyze his website based on three aspects: the category, the traffic rankings and the source of the traffic. This will allow us to provide the best suitable plan accordingly and calculate the affiliate’s earnings prospect.
RSJoomla: The website has to be related to IT/software. Creating your own text about our products rather than copying it from our website really improves the chances to be found by greater audience. Product reviews and blog posts usually are the best ways to do so. Targeted communities or local communities that use our products usually get the most of the affiliate partnership.

2. What are the most common reasons for rejecting an affiliate partnership request?

VSO: We do not reject affiliate partnership requests, we have not yet needed to. However, if an affiliate does not go by the rules we have outlined, we will lower their commission.
DVDFab: Spam promotion or violating our affiliate policy.
IObit: Websites containing inappropriate content, malicious websites and illegal websites will be rejected. Affiliates without clear profiles will also lead to a rejection.
RSJoomla: Websites that share false discount coupons or warez get rejected.

3. Do you have any special policies regarding pay-per-click advertising done by affiliates?

VSO: We request affiliates not to use our brand name when doing pay-per-click advertising, i.e. VSO or VSO-Software. Eventually this will also be applied to product brand names. Affiliates should have the role of making the product known, offering it as a solution when user is looking for a tool to use to do a certain task. If a user is looking for “Product Name XYZ” because they already know of it, then the affiliate here does not really have a role in terms or advertising unless of course that vendor site is not appearing in an organic search. If the affiliate is providing added value then this argument could be contested. Added value content would be landing pages in specific languages that do not exist on vendors site, guides, coupons, etc.
DVDFab: Currently, we don’t allow our affiliates to use PPC program on search engines to promote DVDFab products
IObit: Our affiliates can promote our products through PPC, but it is not allowed to use our trademarks or any IObit product names as PPC keywords, for this is against our policy and the law.
RSJoomla: We don’t have any special policy on the pay-per-click thing. Affiliates can use any politically correct marketing strategies to get more sales.

Behind the Scenes: Tips from Affiliate Managers (2)

2011-02-05T05:30:00.000-08:00

Continuing our first article on this series, in which you found out how to make sure your affiliate partnership request is approved by the vendors, let’s see some tips on how to promote software products online and the ways in which vendors motivate affiliates to sell more (we hope this post is also helpful to software vendors who are starting to use affiliate marketing).
A big thanks, once again, to the people we got the answers from:

Claire Waledisch, Commercial Manager at VSO-Software,
Frank Chang, Marketing Manager at DVDFab,
Keros Tudos, Relationship Manager at IObit and
Alex Lamba, CEO at RSJoomla!

1. What is your number one advice that can help your affiliates be more successful?

VSO: Once the vendors products have been put on a website or have been promoted in one way or another, send this information to the vendor so they can check out your integration. A vendor might have some comments that may help your conversion rate. If you have a big PAD based website, this might not be worth it, but if you have a site where you are only promoting particular products or plan to do an emailing or AdWords campaign, the vendor can provide you with extra tips to increase your conversion rate. If you take this first step, it could change dramatically your potential success. Also, do not hesitate to ask for help, coupons, a personalized banner, keywords, or software keys to try out the product yourself. Vendors cannot just offer everything or imagine the needs you maybe have as an affiliate, so ask for it:).
DVDFab: Try to use the promotion material from vendors to offer your clients a professional look and feel when purchasing.
IObit: Keep in touch. When you keep in touch with us, we can inform you of the latest information and promotional marketing material of IObit products and we can provide you with our professional suggestions and instructions. In this way, you can improve your conversion rate and in the end generate more sales.
RSJoomla: Involve the community in commenting and reviewing the products to attract more clients.

2. How do you incentivize best performing affiliates?

VSO: Affiliates making the most sales get the highest commission. In reality, the best performing affiliates are clever and use innovative ways to promote products. They reward themselves by promoting in smart ways, choosing quality products and negotiating the best commission rate they can with each vendor.
DVDFab: Through higer commission rates, promotion advice.
IObit: First, we will consider to increase their commission rate accordingly. Second, more resources and dedicated support will be provided. Third, possibilities to develop a deeper business relationship in ways of exclusive promotion on their websites, generating a custom-build version for them, a faster response and support and more.
RSJoomla: Top affiliates get higher commissions on our products. In order to be one of our top affiliates, you must earn at least 150 EUR/month – this way, you will get a higher payout.

3. Suppose an affiliate requests a bigger commission – how do you deal with these situations?

VSO: If an affiliate asks for a bigger commission, we evaluate their sales and the manner in which they are promoting our products. Perhaps just changing the way they are promoting our products will result in more sales which means more income, and eventually getting higher commission. We also ask why they need higher commission, maybe it is to cover certain fees or experimentation. How well we know the affiliate prior will be a factor in our consideration of their request.
DVDFab: We have conditions for every level; if an affiliate fits the requirements, the affiliate will get the corresponding commission rate.
IObit: Yes, actually we are giving bigger commission to better performing affiliates. When saying better performinge I mean more sales or more exposure through the affiliate’s channels. Commission raise is possible but also limited, as we are already providing a very attractive starting commission rate which is 60%.
RSJoomla: We are open to discussions, but the affiliate has to prove the first 2 months that he is really doing a good job in selling our products.

So, to wrap this up, constantly communicate with the software vendor and ask for their advice & support when promoting their products, even if you’re experimenting with new ways of promotion. After all, they should know how to outline the benefits of their own products :)
Also – if you’re performing well, most of the vendors will offer you increased commissions and, of course, more attention and support. But remember – you first have to prove that you are able to earn more.